After packing all our household goods in the rental and scrambling around selling furniture and cars and closing bank accounts and saying hasty goodbyes to some of our friends, we started the trek home.

We hired a rental car and driver and enlisted the assistance of a Turkish coworker and set off on the 4 hour trek to Istanbul arriving at the airport hotel at 5:30 p.m. Thursday evening local time. Supper in the restaurant and early to bed 9 or so. Grabbed a few hours sleep before the 3:30 a.m. Wake up call. Cleared the first security check and checked in to our flight by 4:15. Cleared passport control, second security scan and found the departure lounge by 4:45. Cleared another passport check and boarded the plane at 6 after a short wait. Arrived Frankfurt intl by 8:45 Frankfurt local time. Made the 3/4 mile hike and cleared Security in Frankfurt - which now seems to include a full pat down for all passengers travelling from Turkey since the terrorists killed 7 German tourists in the centre of Istanbul in the Sultan Ahmet square a month ago. Multiple passports checks - on arrival, at security, and now as a separate stop at the departure lounge before boarding the plane. Boarded the plane by 10:15 for the 10 1/2 hour flight from Frankfurt to Calgary arriving only 1/2 hour late. Cleared Canadian Customs with the usual passport control and an extra stop to get the paperwork started for importation of our household goods that will follow in 6 weeks or so. Collected all our bags and cleared the final Customs check and walked out into the arrivals area to find that our ride was not there waiting. After a mad scramble to find a cell phone that works in Canada AND had some battery left, we managed to dig out BIL's cell number and call him. Turns out he wanted to save the nominal parking fees and decided to wait for a call... Would have been nice to know in advance, but... Walked out to the meeting place and waited for our ride. Loaded the 6 big cases and 5 carry on bags into the Uplander and squeezed in among the bags for the nearly 2 hour drive home. Arrived home at 3:30 local time. Brought the mountain of luggage in and distributed it to the various bedrooms and proceeded to partially unpack enough to remove dirty laundry and rescue the 4 bottles of Turkish wine we brought back. Total travel time door to door 35 hour made up of 6 hours by car, 10 hours in hotel, 14 hours flying time and 5 hours in airports waiting, multiple security checks, and customs clearance. Lost 9 hours to the time zone difference.

Casualties 0, lost bags 0. Lost of personal dignity after thorough pat down in Germany - marginal. Divorces 0 (so far, anyway). Major squabbles 0.
Left my bags only partially unpacked and headed out to see if my truck would start - not even a lamp on. Searched the shop for a battery charger and hooked it up. Will check again in the morning. Supper of salad and reheated frozen lasagna. A couple stiff drinks of good CANADIAN whiskey and turned off all the lights by 8 p.m. Wide awake now at 1 a.m. After all this time, jet lag still plays nasty games with sleep schedule. Body thinks it is 10 a.m. Like in Turkey, brain looks at clock to find it is 1 a.m. And gets frustrated that sleep eludes although all are still tired. Takes anywhere from 3 days to a week to get right back on schedule. Oh well, I have the time to be patient.....

My Dad always had a simple odd phrase after a long trip.
It always told me how happy he was to get home and that we had (once again) made it home safe and sound.
I'm sure it was a hand me down from his parents. Definitely Appliachia or hillbilly, but anyways, I share it with you upon your return.

Home again
Home again
Jigitty-Jig.

Welcome back to your homeland and your house.
Glad everyone was listed in the win column.
No go dance a jig while the rest of them are still asleep.

Edit: after typing that and thinking about Dad, I got to wondering where. Wouldn't you know it, Google came thru... It's part of an old nursery rhyme.

Sounds like a long tiring trip. Glad you are back home safe and sound. Now for some rest and acquaintance time with home. I'll bet you have some great stories about your work over there and the experiences you have had. Enjoy some down time. Roger